PASSION FOR GOD'S DWELLING PLACE -PART 1

How Lovely Is Your Dwelling Place,

O LORD Almighty!

My soul yearns, even faints for the courts of the Lord;

my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God."

Psalm 84:1-2

Can you hear the passion in the Psalmist's voice? The yearning to be in the courts of the Lord, the place of God's very presence. His whole being longing just to be with God. His heart and flesh crying out, shouting joyfully to the Lord who is alive and living and present there. Have you ever felt so desperate to get to church, to enter into worship that you thought you might just faint dead away? You know, if we’re honest, most of us don’t approach worship that expectantly, with that depth of feeling, that desperately even.

The Psalmist tells us that his entire being longed to be at the house of God! His soul, his body and his heart longed to be in the place of worship! Perhaps he remembered what many saints of God have forgotten that the house of the Lord is an oasis in the desert of this world and it is a safe haven from the storms of life. Whatever thoughts occupied his mind, when he thought of the house of God, his pulse quickened, his eyes brightened and he longed to be there more than anything else in his life.

How did the Psalmist knows loveliness of the dwelling places of the Lord unless he had been there? Furthermore besides enjoying the glorious shekinah presence of God, the following reasons reveal why he was so desperate to be in God's dwelling place:
Psalm 84:2 : there are many courts - different dimensions of His presence
Psalm 84:4 : blessings for those who dwell in His house
Psalm 84:7 : spiritual renewal growing from strength to strength
No wonder the Psalmist declares in Psalm 84:10 that a single day in His presence is far superior than all of the thousand best days the world can provide combined! Most of us know Psalm 84, if for no other reason, than because of the modern worship song “Better Is One Day,” based on portions of this Psalm. It touches the passion within us in verses 1-2, and 10, used in that song, and evokes our own sense of longing for God. Listen to this cool renditon by Worship Jamz:

We also know that all through King David's life, he exhibited this same passionate desire to be in the house of the Lord. Psalm 27:4, "One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple." 1 Chronicles 29:3, "Moreover, because I have set my affection to the house of my God," The whole idea from David's experience is that he was a man who loved the house of the Lord and longed for it when he couldn't be there!

As worshipers, what are our motive for going to the house of the Lord? There is a difference between going there for Him to please our hearts and going there for us to please His heart. We touch a higher dimension in God's presence when we are desperate for more of Him.

Blessings - TPWC

THE SHEKINAH GLORY OF GOD - PART 2 (THE GLORY ZONE)

In the continuing message on the Shekinah Glory of God, I thought it might be good to share some ideas both in written and pictorial expressions of people who have encountered His glorious presence

1) Ruth Ward Heflin - GLORY Experiencing The Atmosphere Of Heaven
When I was a young girl, I went directly from school to the church on Wednesday afternoons. The faithful of the church were gathered in prayer from one to four. I attended most of those prayer meetings.
During the first two hours they had been making their petitions and interceding before God. During the last hour they would just bask in His presence. Those were the best times. Every petition they could think of had been made. Now the Holy Ghost took over. Sounds of glory, dropped into my spirit from those years, have kept me as I traveled all over the world in ministry.
I have been in thousands of meetings and heard thousands of sermons, but the greatest influence in my life has been those glory sounds that came forth in the latter hours of those prayer meetings where God's people touched the eternal realm.
As air is the atmosphere of the earth, GLORY is the atmosphere of Heaven. It lifts us up above the earthly, into the very presence of God.

2) Brownsville Revival 1995 -2003

Pictures of people touched & worshipping in the Glory Zone

(pictures used with permission from Sister Cathy Wood - official photographer)

In His Glorious Presence

WHEN GLORY FALLS!

Brownsville 9-7-2001There was really no way for me to take photos last night! The GLORY began to fall and I made a quality decision to worship instead of work! Pastor was going to preach but we never got there. It became a night like when there's no company and we all are in our pajamas just being comfortable with each other. Oh, we had visitors alright, but no guest was brought in to preach. There was freedom to not think about what we needed to do next. It was like the beginning of the revival. Prayer ministry began very early, before 9:00. It was spontaneous and exciting. Lindell (worship pastor) must have been prayed for because he just sat there, unable to play the keyboard for long time. The sounds in the sanctuary came from voices in worship and joy as the Holy Ghost kissed the crowd. No one wanted to leave. There were people sitting on the steps, all over the floor, on the pews, under the pews ..... We are still hungry. We are still desperate for the move of God.

More insight on the Glory Zone in next post

TPWC

THE SHEKINAH GLORY OF GOD (HEAVENLY WORSHIP ON EARTH)

This week I felt led to share about experiencing the Glory of God in worship? If you are passionate about the Presence of God, you will never be satisfied until you see the Glory of God.

What is the Glory of God? It is visible and tangible manifestation of God's Presence. In Biblical Hebrew the word is called Shekinah and is derived from the Hebrew verb שכן. The word means literally to settle, inhabit, or dwell, and is used frequently in the Hebrew Bible. (See Exodus 40:35, "Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting, for the cloud rested [shakhan] upon it, and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle." See also Genesis 9:27, 14:13, Psalms 37:3, Jeremiah 33:16).

The Bible has many examples:

In the Old Testament - Moses saw the burning bush. The visible manifestation of God’s presence was seen not only by the Israelites but also by the Egyptians when God showed His power and glory in the ten plagues and when the Israelites crossed the Red Sea.

Examples in the New Testament - Peter, James, John, Stephen, and Paul saw Him in His Glory. Three of those in The Transfiguration of Jesus; Stephen at his martyrdom; and Paul, we don't know when, but he said in his story "there was a man taken up to paradise," and heard unspeakable things.

Bob Sorge in his book "GLORY - When Heaven Invades Earth" (a must read) defines the word GLORY as a noun :

(1) Glory - Honour, reputation, dignity, praise

(2) Glory - Endowment of blessing, power and life

(3) Glory - The heavenly dimension where the magnitude of God's personhood irradiates throughout the heavenlies

(4) Glory - The invasion of God's reality into the human sphere

The highest goal of worship deals with point (4) and Bob Sorge defines "GLORY" as used in the Bible to describe the action of God whereby He takes of His Glory which is eternally existent in heaven, pushes through the veil that separates natural and spiritual realities, and reveals within the parameteters of our time and space the spendor of His magnificient beauty and splendor.

There is coming a time when the Glory of the heavenlies is going to invade our natural plane, and mankind is going to be abruptly awakened to the might and power of God's Presence. It is to this revelation of Glory which the following verses point:
- For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord,as the waters cover the sea ( Habakkuk 2:14)

- "And I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory," says the Lord of hosts (Haggai 2:7)

- The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken (Isaiah 40:5)

In my personal experience, I had encountered glimpse of His Shekinah Glory - once in the worship seminar and another earlier time as a young Christian in a prayer meeting when His Glory fell. Both times there were visions (just a few seconds) of bright light ..... at that time I did not know the meaning of these two experiences but they were such awesome times and encounters when/where you just do not want to leave the place. Time just stood still in His glorious presence!

A few years ago, the church I attended when through a refreshing period of what we called "Revival" and very often we experienced such a glorious presence of God in our worship services. Sometimes the worship service would last more than 3 hours and everybody were immersed in His Presence. Often we experienced both heavenly and physical manifestations. Some people have actually smelled heavenly aroma during worship services. Others have seen vision of angels or heard angels singing. When you have a spiritual experience that is actually perceived at the sensory/physical level, then you are touching the Glory realm.

If you are a worshiper or worship leader, how do you touch or lead people respectively into the Glory realm? ..... next post

Blessings

TPWC